Augmented reality (AR) is a kind of mixed reality, that is, a region between reality and virtuality, and means that information of a thing or a video or image thereof is augmented by composing virtual information and real information. The augmented reality is also called extended reality in terms that the sense and recognition of a person for a thing is extended by adding additional virtual information to actual information.
Meanwhile, recently, with the help of the spread of a mobile device on which a camera has been mounted, such as a smartphone and a tablet computer, the application area of the augmented reality technology is extended to mobiles and a variety of types of sensor parts for sensing a location, direction and slope, such as a GPS, are mounted on the mobile device. Accordingly, a base capable of implementing augmented reality by sensing the location, height and direction of an actual object using the mobile device has been prepared. An augmented reality system based on such a portable mobile device is called mobile augmented reality.
Meanwhile, a card game in which each player determines a character appearing in the game in a card received offline and the capability variable of the corresponding character and performs a battle game in accordance with a predetermined game rule using the capability variable is the vogue. In the case of such a battle game, in the capability variable of a character, physical strength, striking power, defense power, etc. are set and used as the attributes of the character that performs a battle.
A battle game using such a card is purely played as a traditional offline card game, and it is also implemented in a form that operates in conjunction with a dedicated game machine, a personal computer, a smart device and a dedicated game server with the development of the IT technology.
In particular, recently, a technology and game content in which the augmented reality technology through a mobile device having a camera mounted thereon and a game using a card are grafted are being attempted.
In this augmented reality technology, in general, each of a plurality of markers is recognized, and a virtual object corresponding to each recognized marker is independently synthesized with the location of each marker and expressed. There may be used a technology in which when a plurality of markers is recognized and any one marker is moved aside, that is, when any one marker enters a preset distance from the other marker, an interaction between virtual objects that responds by recognizing the distance between the markers is performed.
Furthermore, as the development of part of the technology, as in Patent Document below, a method of implementing an interaction using the locations of a plurality of markers printed on cards may be attempted by implementing an augmented reality device and method for previously defining the mutual actions of virtual objects based on the slopes, directions, distances and types (ID) of the markers printed on the cards and representing the action of a predefined virtual object based on the type ID of a corresponding marker when the slope, direction and distance of a recognized marker are changed.
The technology of Patent Document below is a method of defining a new marker based on a relative location (slope, direction and distance) between markers respectively printed on two cards, and may be used to implement an interaction in such a way as to play back an animation previously assigned to the new marker.
However, the technology of Patent Document below has a problem in that responding to game play by setting or resetting a game situation according to various variables is limited because a situation is set in such a way as to assign an animation based on a new marker defined according to a relative location of a printed marker.
That is, if the technology is applied to a card battle game, a predetermined result value, such as assigning an animation according to a relative location of a marker, is reflected. Accordingly, it is impossible to set or reset capability variables, such as physical strength, striking power and defense power set or reset, according to the progress of game in addition to the play of an animation and to dynamically process animation data in response to a change in the capability variable. As a result, the technology has a technological limit to the application of a game that requires various game situation presentments.
Furthermore, the number of printed markers that must be recognized is increased according to an increase in the type of card because a new marker and each animation must be defined in response to a situation according to a relative location between markers. Accordingly, the number of new markers and animations that must be recognized according to their relative locations is also increased.
For example, if the number of markers printed on a card is 10 and a relative location between markers printed on two cards is to be recognized, the number of markers newly recognized and the number of animations allocated thereto are 90.
If the number of markers that must be newly recognized and the number of animations allocated thereto are increased as described above, the technology has a problem in that it is not suitable for a mobile device having limited augmented reality processing resources because a load of the mobile device that processes augmented reality and the amount of data to be processed are suddenly increased.
Furthermore, the technology is a method of defining a new marker based on a relative location between markers and recognizing the new marker. If the relative location values of a plurality of recognized markers, that is, the conditions of an angle, distance and direction, are not accurately matched, there is a problem in that a recognition ratio is fundamentally low because a new marker is not recognized. In particular, if the technology is applied to a card battle game in which cards are frequently overlapped, there is a frequent problem in that a new marker itself is not recognized due to the deformation of an image attributable to the overlap of markers during the play of the game.
Accordingly, it is practically impossible to apply the conventional technology to a card battle game. There is an urgent need for a new technology capable of efficiently processing an interaction action between characters that are composed and displayed on an augmented reality processing device as a technology in which the augmented reality technology and the card battle game are grafted.